On the Day I Died
by LizzyLovesPink
Summary: Before the Shinigami, Vizards, and Arrancar became who they are today, they were once alive in glamorous time periods, with hopes and dreams that were taken away from them, sometimes in only a second. Their deaths give them a chance to redeem their wasted lives, and in some cases, they promise to live out their deaths even better than they did their lives...Rating just in case.
1. One Wrong Turn-Hiyori, 1988

**This is my first time doing something like this, so the first few stories might be a little awkward...I don't know when this'll be finished, I want it to be something I work on on and off. I got the idea because there seems to be virtually no theories about how they died or what kind of people the Bleach characters were like when they were alive, so I decided to take matters into my own hands! I hope people enjoy this...**

 **I'll add in Hitsugaya's story to this series at some point too.**

 **Yoko is a Japanese girl name meaning 'foreign child'. Hmmm...**

 **#####**

Hayley was, to put it very simply, _pissed off._ If it wasn't for the stupid party her dumb older brother invited her to, she wouldn't be in this position. She should've pitched a fit, screamed, even broke something and gotten grounded-so she could've spent the night at her house. And yet, she went to the party to make her brother happy. Oh, what a mistake that was. Hayley knew no medical crews were coming to save her, no, nobody called for them, and honestly, who could've survived a crash that bad? She caught sight of her face in the broken rear-view mirror, that was only shattered because a majority of the pieces had wedged themselves into her face and were creating slow flows of blood into her nose, mouth and eyes. She didn't have energy anymore to close them. Her face also got slammed into the dashboard, and thus remained there, and her side was badly cut from her seat belt.

As she laid there, slowly but surely dying from all her blood loss, she started thinking back to her short life and the kind of person she was, and she vowed that if she made it to the after-life, whatever it may be, that she'd change her whole personality around, if only to prevent another tragic accident like this from ever happening again.

#######

"What did you do to your hair?" Hayley's older brother, Charlie, asked her a few mornings ago. He was clearly trying to stifle a fit of snickers, and she simply crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I dyed it." She said matter-of-factly.

"If you call that a good dye job, then yes, you dyed your hair."

"I think it looks nice! What do you think, Mom?" Hayley cried for support from their mother.

"It looks very good on you, Hayley! I was starting to wonder when you were going to do something with that mess on your head anyway. The blonde stands out more now, and really matches your punkish clothes!" She teased, pouring out their breakfast. "Now please sit down and eat."

"Besides, I just streaked it. It's not like my whole head is pink," Hayley elaborated, eating her fried eggs slowly.

"You look like a sick sunset. It's ridiculous." Charlie continued to laugh, finally losing the battle with his snickers. Hayley simply sighed to herself in annoyance, being too shy to properly speak up.

"Oh, stop it, you two. Besides, school starts up in two weeks, so soon you won't see each other as much." Their mother sat down and started drinking her usual coffee with cream on top-whipped. "I can't believe my little Hayley is going into middle school this year!"

"I'm proud of myself too. I feel like I really earned the chance to study in a bigger school." She beamed, finishing her eggs.

"Speaking of which, a group of my friends are going to an end-of-summer party tomorrow night. Want to come?" Charlie offered.

"Why do you want me there?"

"Because you still deserve to have fun! Plus, that hair really shows off your sense of style. Messy!"

"Wait, isn't this a high-school party? Hayley's only twelve! What if someone slips her drugs or alcohol?" Their mother asked sternly, staring Charlie down.

"Calm down, Mom, I'm twelve! I can take care of myself," Hayley reassured her with a smile, eating her crispy bacon.

"It won't be wild, I swear. Half of the people on Josh's invite list are total nerds anyway. Hayley's type of crowd. She'll fit right in." Charlie got a piece of bacon thrown at him, but it missed badly and landed right in the middle of his plate instead. "Thanks for the extra protein!" He smirked.

"I'm going to go visit Yoko. She'll love my hair!" Hayley announced before leaving the table.

She took a quick shower, placing a plastic bag over her hair to protect the color, and quickly threw on her favorite tracksuit. It was red with white stripes on it, and came with matching white high-tops. It even had her last name stitched onto the front breast: Summit. She then pulled on her backpack and filled it with several of her most favorite movies for her and Yoko to watch later.

"Hair up or down?" She asked herself, eyeing herself in the mirror. Her hair had grown very long recently, and she finally decided to tie it up into pigtails so it wouldn't be in her way. The pigtails grazed past her shoulders, though they didn't reach much further.

Afterwards, she ran out the door and headed over to her best friend's house. Her best friend was a foreign exchange student from Japan who moved into her neighborhood just that summer, and Hayley took it upon herself to personally show her around.

She eagerly knocked on the front door, and as usual, Yoko opened it with her usual grin.

"Morning! You want to take more Japanese language lessons?" She asked as Hayley let herself in.

"Not today. I wanted to watch movies with you!" Hiyori kicked off her shoes and sat herself down on Yoko's soft, plushy couch.

"A movie? Which one?"

"Pick one!" Hiyori laughed, overturning her backpack and having four different videos fall out. "Take your pick!"

"How about The Princess Bride? It's so romantic!" Yoko selected, and Hiyori took it out of its box and slid it into the VCR.

"Luckily I rewound this the other night. Otherwise we'd have to wait!" She sat back down on the couch.

"I didn't know you had a VCR at your house! You said you were poor." Yoko asked, sitting beside her.

"We just got it last Christmas, and it was the only thing both I and my brother got. Honestly, we're so poor the fact we have indoor plumbing is a miracle!"

"Also, your hair! I love it!"

"Thanks. Charlie said I looked like a sick sunset."

"Ignore him, he's just trying to tease you. Oh, the movie's starting!" Yoko made herself comfortable by snuggling a pillow, while Hayley sat on her ankles. "I wish we had some popcorn!"

"Yeah, me too."

"They don't have popcorn in Japan, you know. Or peanut butter, if you can believe! When I first tried peanut butter, I was so amazed! It really is like butter made from peanuts! It's so smooth and creamy!" Yoko continued to gush, oblivious to Hayley's whispers telling her to quiet down so they could watch the movie. "I should start a petition to bring peanut butter back to Japan with me. All the teenagers will love it!"

"Uh, yeah, that's great Yoko, but shouldn't we focus on the movie?" Hayley sighed.

"Right! My mistake!" Yoko faced forward and didn't say another word throughout the rest of the film, true to her word. At least she had her honesty, which was what Hayley liked about her. She was so expressive, and Hayley was so...not. She could never speak up when it was needed.

##########

Finally, the movie ended, and Yoko got up and stretched. "I know I've seen that movie ten times already, but it's a good one!" She praised. She popped it out of the VCR and put it back in its box.

"Charlie invited me to an end-of-summer party a group of his friends are having tomorrow night." Hayley said, jumping off the couch.

"And you're going?"

"Might as well. Maybe meet some smart people."

"But it's Charlie's party!"

"I still think it might be fun..." Hayley nervously looked down at her feet.

"Are you wearing anything nice?"

"Probably just that old ensemble I always wear to parties like these. It'd look good with my new hair, for sure!"

"Okay, just don't get drunk."

"I will not get drunk."

"Which dress are you wearing?" Yoko started stacking all the videos up and sliding them back into Hayley's backpack.

"You know the one, I wore it to the 6th grade graduation ceremony!" Hayley giggled a bit.

"Oh, you mean the one with the tutu skirt and blue top?"

"That's the one."

"That would look uber cute with your hair!"

"What do you want to do now?"

Yoko glanced down at Hayley's track suit and a lightbulb popped out of her head. "Wanna go out for a jog? You're dressed for it!"

"This thing?" Hayley posed in it. "You know I always wear this on the weekends. It's actually starting to fall apart, I wear it so much."

"I'll go put mine on, then I'll race you to the mall!" Yoko grinned in a teasing way, then darted from the room.

"But the mall is three miles away!" Hayley shouted at her in shock.

"Better start running then!"

###########

Once they got to the mall, Yoko decided some shopping was in order, namely for a new party dress for Hayley.

"You at least need new shoes!" She finally insisted, and Hayley sighed and allowed herself to be dragged into a girly clothing store. She made a beeline for several mannequins, which were showing off mix-and-match sweaters and jean pockets. "How about these?" She asked eagerly, pulling some bright red ballet flats off a shelf.

"Fine." Hayley balanced the shoes in her hands and disappeared into a changing room, sticking her tongue out at how dreadful ballet flats looked with a track-suit. Not even with her tutu skirt would she consider wearing them.

She came out of the dressing room with them on and posed, making Yoko smile more. "You look great! Red is totally your color!"

"I'm more of a high-top person," Hayley said shyly, looking away. She spotted a pretty pink pair on a shelf and quickly grabbed those.

"You have shoes...what else do you think you'll need?" Yoko thought. "How about leggings?"

"Okay." Hayley cradled the high-tops to her chest and followed her Japanese friend, who had already picked out a pair of black leggings for her.

"You've already got a skirt and a top, right? Then how about a jacket?" She ran over to a rack that sported several types of denim and graffiti jackets, and picked out a heavy denim jacket with golden glitter graffiti on the back.

"What does that say?" Hayley wondered, looking closer.

"Who knows? And more importantly, who cares? You'll be looking outrageous at the party tomorrow night!"

"Are we forgetting anything?" Hayley looked over the leggings, high-tops, and jacket, and realized she was indeed missing something-jewelry.

"Oh, right! Jelly bracelets! And gloves!" Yoko dashed over to a half-priced jewelry rack and pulled out a pack of jelly bracelets in neon colors, and some neon-green fishnet gloves that were fingerless. "How are these?"

"I don't want to attract unwanted attention..." Hayley said softly, blushing. "I'm at a high-school party, you know."

"Nobody will even look at you! Now come on, let's pay for these!" She dragged her blonde-haired friend over to the counter and piled all the clothes on. "How much?"

"$59." The cashier said in a bored tone.

"I can't afford that..." Hayley looked down at her shoes in embarrassment. "How am I to buy a jacket like that when my family doesn't even have a microwave?"

"Ouch." Yoko winced. "Fine, no jacket. It'd probably prevent you from buckling your seat-belt in anyway." She pushed it off the pile and asked for the new total, which was only about twenty bucks less. "I'll pay for it."

She did so, then nearly skipped out of the store, carrying the bag. "What now?"

Hayley shrugged.

"Let's go back to your place and see how this looks with your skirt!" And before Hayley could blink, Yoko had run off again, making Hayley sprint to catch up.

###########

They arrived back at Hayley's place and came home to her brother watching a movie on their black-and-white TV.

"Where did you two go?" He asked in a curious tone.

"Mall!" Yoko answered brightly. "I got Hayley some super cute clothes to wear at the party tomorrow night!"

"Oh, you shouldn't have. Hayley hates people looking at her." Charles said.

"The girl needs a bit of attention! So shy!"

Hayley blushed and looked at her feet again.

"Anyway, how stupid is it that we have to go back to school in the middle of August? My other friends don't go back until September!" Charles carried on, seemingly forgetting that the TV was still on.

"At least it's still warm!" Yoko offered a smile.

"I don't really care when school starts." Hayley put in nervously.

"Yeah, but that's because you're an ace student." Charles teased.

She didn't respond to this and instead retreated into the kitchen.

She leaned against a counter and felt her face, feeling how hot it was. God, why was she so shy all of the time? If she had a chance to go back and do her life over, she'd start by becoming assertive. A lot more assertive.

Not having anything else to do, but not wanting to go back into the living room just yet, she grabbed the carton of orange juice from the fridge and started chugging it-straight from the carton.

As Hayley drank, she checked the date on the calendar to count how many days they had until school started. She started at tomorrow's date, August 1st, and counted.

They would be back in school August 15th, 1988.

"Hayley!" Charles' loud voice shocked her and she spit out her orange juice and choked. "Don't germ up our juice, we need that! Ugh, I'm going to have to disinfect that!" Despite the fact he was teasing, Hayley still felt her blood boil and slammed the carton back onto the counter.

"There." She huffed.

"Hey, I'm just messing with you." He put his hands up defensively.

"How will we get to the party? We don't own a car." She asked.

"Oh, Josh will drive us. He'll have his girlfriend with him, but don't worry, she's cool. You'll like her."

Hayley simply nodded and left the kitchen, then went upstairs into her room with Yoko.

"Hey, you changed your blanket! I like it!" She praised, turning on the lights.

Hayley's bedroom was as girly-pink as you could possibly get, and filled with faux fur. Faux fur rugs, a faux fur pink lamp and telephone, a painted pink dresser and vanity set, and glittery pink wall decorations painted onto her wall, shaped like flowers.

Her bed was the only thing that really stuck out; it had dark purple bedding on with a snake pattern.

"It was Mom's idea. She was sick of an all-pink room." Hayley sat on her bed and bounced on it slightly.

"But why snakes?"

Hayley just shrugged at this, and Yoko turned the bag upside down and dumped its contents onto the white fluffy carpet. "Alright, let's see your party outfit!"

She got off the bed and vanished into her closet, coming back out with a bright pink tutu skirt, a white tank top, and an off-shoulder blue top with a black swirly graphic on it. She quickly threw off her track-suit and pulled on the tank top and blue shirt, letting it hang sloppily off her shoulder. Next came her tutu skirt, which was two separate layers and swished around nicely with her own motions. She tugged on the leggings, and finally tied up her pink high-tops, something Yoko winced at.

"Wait, when did you buy those?"

"At the store earlier. I hate ballet flats." Hayley responded, slipping on her fishnet gloves.

"Whatever."

Next came her jelly bracelets, and she finally spun around for Yoko's verdict.

"Sassy! Do you have any sunglasses, or barrettes?"

"Hm..." Hayley reached for the first pair of barrettes she found on her dresser, which were a matching set of pink and green balls. She quickly clipped them into her bangs.

"Nice barrettes! They look like Japanese dumplings. Delicious!"

Hayley finally put on a pair of chunky white sunglasses and peered at Yoko from under them, trying her best to scowl.

"Perfect! You're going to be a riot at that party! Just don't get drunk! Or high! And watch who you drive home with!" Yoko teased, although there was a clear warning in her voice.

"I won't die." Hayley took off her sunglasses. "Charles says there won't be any alcohol at this party, and I'm smarter than that." She spun around one final time, her skirt twirling with her. "It's going to take a whole lot more than that to kill me off." She grinned a bit.

###############

The next day was pretty uneventful, so Hayley spent the day in her room, reading. She only started getting ready when Charles knocked on her bedroom door with a threat to kick it down if she wasn't dressed in the next fifteen minutes.

Luckily, since she laid her outfit out the night before, it took her only about ten minutes to get dressed, and she slid her sunglasses on and popped a piece of gum in her mouth for the final effect.

"Ready!" She announced, throwing open her bedroom door.

"You look like you're trying too hard." He teased, wearing a simple sweater and jeans. She looked at him from under her sunglasses. "I'm joking! You take everything too seriously! Now let's go!"

They stood outside their house to wait for Josh and his girlfriend, and Hayley found herself shivering from the chilly air. The sun was slightly lower in the sky than it should've been for August, which made Hayley slightly concerned, as well as the sudden drop in temperature.

"What's his girlfriend like?" She found herself asking, just to keep the silence from growing too awkward.

"Her name's Brittany. She's super preppy and always dresses in neon. Just trust me, you'll like her." He answered calmly, staring at the horizon.

Hayley still doubted this, since Charles answered in such a rushed voice, but finally decided to let it go and tared at the street, hoping they'd get there soon.

Sure enough, a bright red car drove up, and out came a teenaged girl in a bright blue leotard decorated in leopard spots.

"Hey Charles! And is this your lil' sis? She's so adorable!" The girl cooed, and Hayley correctly assumed she was Brittany. She was also chewing gum, which comforted the young girl a bit. Perhaps she could slip in undetected, after all.

"Yup, that's her. Her name is Hayley." Charles said in a bored tone, already walking over to the car.

"Hi, Hayley! I'm Brittany, Josh's girlfriend. Your outfit is outrageous! You excited for this party?" She carried on, and Hayley simply blushed and looked down at her shoes. "Don't have to be shy, there's some really cool people there. Maybe you'll meet a friend!"

"Come on, chatterboxes, we don't want to be late! Otherwise all the good food will be gone!" Josh called from the car, honking the horn. Charles was already sitting in the back, leaning out of the window.

"Okay, okay, chill! Chill! We're coming!" Brittany laughed, climbing into the passenger's seat beside Josh. Hayley slipped into the backseat next to Charles, and once everyone is buckled up, they sped off.

"How about I let you sit in the front seat? It's only fair since you're our guest of honor!" Josh asked, adjusting his mirror so he could see Hayley's brown eyes.

"On the way back? Whatever." Hayley crossed her arms in front of her chest to keep herself warm. "You don't mind? What about Brittany?"

"Oh, she's fine with it. Isn't that right?"

"I don't care where I sit." Brittany answered, fixing the blue paint on her nails.

Nobody talked the rest of the way, which Hayley thought odd. Just what kind of party was she being dragged to?

They soon pulled up to a small cottage-style house, which had a street filled with cars. Hayley wondered how many actually belonged to the party guests, and how many belonged to residents nearby.

"Let's get this party started!" Josh cheered, and Brittany cheered with him, unbuckling her seat belt and jumping out of the car.

"Wait, aren't you the host?" Hayley asked, getting out as well.

"Yeah, but this isn't a particularly rowdy crowd. I'm not concerned." Josh answered, going on inside ahead of the rest.

"Let's go! Are you hungry?" Brittany asked, grabbing Hayley's arm and tugging her inside the house as well, which was so full of smoke that she found herself coughing.

"Fog machine! Cool!" Charles yelled from somewhere behind Hayley, making her jump.

Loud music was being played somewhere, but not very many people were actually dancing, much preferring to sit around and talk to each other or eat, and a few people were even reading. Was this really the kind of crowd Charles hung out with? Now she had something to tease him for.

Charles and Josh dispersed, Charles going into the kitchen and Josh to talk to a group of guys in the hallway, but Brittany stayed.

"Want to meet some of my friends?" She asked nicely, and Hayley shrugged. Brittany dragged her over to a small group of girls, who were all seated on stools, and who all had some sort of dye job in their hair.

"Wow, I love your pink streaks!" A girl with short green hair commented. "It's so wicked!"

"Thank you..." Hayley blushed and looked away.

"This is Josh's friend Charles' little sister Hayley. This is her first party, so be nice to her, okay?" Brittany was handed a bottle of hair-spray by one of her friends, and she started spraying her already big curly hair, making Hayley cough some more.

"So, how old are you? What grade are you going into?" A girl with blue, green, and red streaks in her otherwise black hair asked.

"I'm twelve. I'll be going into the seventh grade." Hayley answered, settling into a stool of her own.

"Cool! I'm Hilary. I'll be going into the tenth grade!"

"Your name sorta sounds like mine," Hayley said lamely.

"Yeah." Hilary looked away, and so did Hayley. She begged herself not to become a total social embarrassment at this party, as the last thing she needed was to make Charles make fun of her for something genuine.

"I love your sunglasses!" The green-haired girl carried on. "I have a pair of goggles at home that look just like them! Course I don't wear them everywhere, but whatever!"

"What grade are you going into?" Hayley asked.

"Eleventh! My name's Marie!"

"I'm Hayley."

"I heard. So, Charles is your brother, huh? I'm friends with him. He always insists that he's not hungry when it's time for lunch, but I know he is by his stomach growls! I always buy him lunch!" Marie took a sip of the drink in her cup, which made Hayley nervous.

"Oh, that's nice of you." She looked down. So, Charles can't afford to buy lunch for himself anymore? She felt like throwing up when she realized why she always had money for lunch...

"You thirsty?" Marie thrust her cup into Hayley's face, and she caught a whiff of-soda?

"A little." Hayley admitted, taking Marie's cup and downing the rest. It was incredibly warm Pepsi.

"Don't worry about trying to fit in here, most of these people don't fit in at all." Marie teased, earning her a glare from Hilary.

"Hey! I fit in! I was the president of the ninth-grade class last year!"

"Yeah, all twenty of them." Marie snorted.

Hayley decided to leave while she could and went into the kitchen, where several bottles of soda and long lines of food trays were set up. She had already eaten dinner, but the catered fast food was calling out to her, so she cut off a smaller piece of a giant sub sandwich and bit into it.

"Yuck! Mayo!" She cried in disgust, spitting the offending bite out onto the floor. "Who likes mayo? Ick!" She rubbed her teeth to try and get all of the taste of the horrid condiment out of her mouth when Marie bounced into the kitchen.

"I'm just getting more soda," She explained, and in the brighter light Hayley saw she was wearing tight jean shorts with black tights under them.

"Okay." Hayley leaned against the wall, still clutching her sandwich. She didn't want to throw it away because that was wasteful, but she couldn't very well put it back because she didn't want someone else to eat her own spit. So, held it she did.

Charles came into the kitchen shortly after Marie left and stared Hayley down.

"What?" She finally asked.

"You should be out there, partying it up! I didn't bring you here so you could hang out on the wall in the kitchen."

"I don't socialize well."

"What about Brittany? Or Marie? She told me you were in here."

"...Fine." Hayley tossed him her sandwich and left the kitchen, sitting back on the stool she had before.

"Hey, you're back! Did you eat anything good while you were in there?" Hilary asked.

"Just a sandwich." And I only took a bite out of it, she added in her head.

"I wonder why Josh decided to have this party. His friends aren't exactly the partying type, and there's no way for people to get drunk either." Brittany said, flexing her long legs out on her own stool.

"Who cares? It's a party!" Marie cheered. "We don't need to be drunk to have a good time!"

"Not sloppily drunk. We can get tipsy and have a good time." Brittany corrected her.

"So, what, are you leaving early?" Marie challenged Brittany, seeing her jump off her stool.

"If Charles is okay with it. Josh probably won't drive us home, but Charles can. He's a good driver." Brittany left the room to find her guys, and Hayley leaned back on her seat.

"Well, if you are leaving, then here." Marie scribbled a number on the bottom of her cup and handed it to her. "My phone number. You have a landline, don't you? We can chat about awesome things!"

"Here's mine too." Hilary quickly added hers and labeled it with an 'H' so Hayley wouldn't get confused. "Stay out of trouble in junior high, you hear me?"

"Okay." Hayley slipped her glasses down and peered at them from underneath them and blew a bubble with her gum. "We'll see. I'm a rebel." She tried to tease, but it came out sounding stoic.

"Such a rebel! You drank soda and ate without even pulling out your gum!" Marie teased.

"Is your hair dyed?" Hayley asked.

"Yeah. I actually have brown hair. My mom always wanted to dye her hair green once her daughter hit high school, but...well, she ended up dying before that happened. But I still dyed it in her memory."

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Hayley bit her thumbnail awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it. She died back in the mid-seventies, before I was really able to have much of a memory about her, but Dad told me a lot, including about her hair dye wish. She died of an illness, but Dad won't tell me which one." She looked away.

"Why is your hair dyed, Hayley?" Hilary asked, but Hayley simply shrugged.

"I liked it this way." She tugged on her blonde pigtail, showing off the long pink streaks in it. "Charles told me I look like a sick sunset."

"Hey, we're leaving!" Charles announced loudly, and Hayley jumped off her stool.

"That's my cue. It was nice meeting you two though." She waved nervously, and the two happily waved back.

"Don't be a stranger!" Marie grinned.

"Have a nice day." Hilary said simply, and Hayley was dragged outside by Brittany.

"Josh says he has to keep an eye on the party, but he gave me permission to drive his car back." Charles grinned and showed off his keys.

"Don't wreck his car! He takes pride in it!" Brittany warned, and Hayley spit her gum out into the grass.

"Who is it do you think you're talking to?" Charles unlocked the car and got inside, and Hayley sat beside him in the passenger seat.

"Hey, you got their phone numbers! Cool, they're super nice." Brittany chimed in from the back, buckling in her seat belt.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Charles yelled once Hayley had buckled in her own seatbelt, he slammed down the gas and sped them out of there.

"Hey, don't you think you're going a bit too fast..?" Hayley asked nervously, but Charles turned the radio up to ignore her. Brittany stared out the window, bored. "Watch the speed limit," She finished, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out her own window.

The song ended soon, and a popular one came on,making both Charles and Brittany grin. "This is my song!" Charles exclaimed, dangerously swerving the car to avoid a curb and making Hayley dizzy.

"Yeah! Let's sing it!" Brittany started to sing the song loudly, and Charles joined in, making Hayley scowl.

"You're too loud..." She huffed, looking out the front window and focusing on nothing.

"Come on, Hayley, sing along with us!" Brittany asked, but Hayley shook her head. She barely knew the words, and besides, someone had to watch the road for Charles, didn't they?

She kept looking out in front of her, bored but alert, then nearly doubled-over when she saw another car coming towards them at a rapid speed.

"Charles, Charles! There's another car!" She yelled, but he couldn't hear her over the blaring radio and their singing. "Charles! You have to turn!" She screamed, leaning over and desperately trying to gain control of the steering wheel to swerve the car.

"Hayley, what are you doing?! Stop!" Charles demanded, but the only thing Hayley really had time for was to motion over to the other car, which had tried to turn to avoid them, but ended up colliding right into them.

The last thing she really remembered was the sound of bending metal, Brittany screaming, and her own head being slammed into the window, and the sound of the glass breaking as a result. She tasted blood in her mouth, and finally closed her eyes, the last thing she had energy for.

############

Hayley woke up with a jolt, praying everything that happened to her was a nightmare. She looked over at her figure, and looked around her surroundings and felt her stomach clench when she realized everything that happened to her was absolutely real.

"Charles..." She sighed, trying to grab onto his limp body, only to have her hands go right through him. "Charles? Charles!" She cried, trying to grab him, but every time her hands would just go through him. "No...no...it can't be..." She looked down at her own chest, which was sporting a black hole and a long chain, which was wrapped around the exterior of the car.

"It can't be!" She ran out of the car and saw her own body, still lying in the car, covered in blood with glass shards in its forehead. In horror, she felt her own face and felt the glass shards still embedded in her face, and realized her sunglasses had cracked in the impact. In a sudden fit of anger, she threw them off and crushed them under her high-top, then glared at her brother's body.

"You...you..." She struggled with the words, still feeling her anger boiling. Twelve years of not emoting finally bubbled over, and she felt her blood rising. "You...you MURDERED ME!" She screamed, finally admitting that she was dead. Not just dead, but a murder victim. Of her own brother's.

"You little piece of scum, you horrid piece of shit! How can you just lie there, so calmly? Are you still alive, you little shit? You're going to be treated in some fancy hospital somewhere, while my body is left to rot in the ground! They'll probably give you another sibling, a better one, one you actually want! You'll never think about your sister again! Well I'll tell you what, you little bitch. I'm still alive, and I'll make sure you never, ever, EVER forget about me!" She screamed, finally stopping to catch her breath.

Hayley held her chest, feeling her anger still raging. Instead of taking it out on her brother, however, she leaned against a light-post near the car and sat down, then started angrily sobbing into her hands.

She was dead now, there was no hiding that, and she hadn't even died a merciful death. Her brother was spared, but she was not. And she hated it. She loathed how ugly she was now, with her broken, bruised body and her cracked face, and she hated how the chain limited her movements so she had to constantly be around the crash site.

But most of all, Hayley hated how she had partially died of her own hand. How she refused to be assertive and loud her entire life, and how she paid the price for that. If she was more violent and louder, her brother could've turned in time to save them, or at the very least, not killed them.

As she sat there crying, she became aware of someone staring intently at her.

"Hey, little girl. What's up with your hair? It looks like a sick sunset!"

...Charles?

She looked up, hopeful, tears still in her eyes. Her face fell slightly when she saw it wasn't Charles, yet the strange man had his voice, and his hair, although Charles' was a whole lot shorter than this man's.

"...Fuck off." She spat out, rubbing her eyes .

"That's no way to speak to me! You're such a vulgar little girl! How about I just leave you here and let you be eaten?" The man suddenly spat back, glaring at her. She simply glared back.

"What do you want?" She asked bitterly, not in the mood for this nonsense.

"I'm here to take you to the Soul Society, because last time I checked, you were dead, and if you stay here, you'll be eaten by Hollows." The man flicked his long blonde hair.

"What." Hayley blinked.

"Are you coming or what?"

"Whatever." Hayley slowly stood up. "If it gets you to leave me alone."

"What is your name? It's my job to know the names of all the souls I Reap."

"...Tell me yours, I'll tell you mine." Hayley crossed her arms over her chest.

"Captain Shinji Hirako of Squad 5. Now who are you?" Shinji stated in a professional voice.

"Heh, a captain?" Hayley mocked.

"Just tell me your name or I really will leave you here!"

"Alright." Hayley paused to think about this.

Of course, her most obvious answer was to just say her name, Hayley Summit, but that didn't sound right. After all, Hayley Summit was a dead girl, and while she herself was also dead, she was also way more alive than the girl in that car.

"Well?" Shinji coaxed. Hayley looked back at him.

"...My name is Hiyori Sarugaki. I am twelve years old and was going to enter the seventh grade, but it looks like I won't be doing much schooling where-ever I'm going." She answered.

"Did you just now make that up?" Shinji laughed, and Hiyori raised her hand up to slap him.

"It's rude to insult the death!" She snapped.

"You got me there." Still, he had trouble containing his giggles."Alright, now just stand still and I'll send you to where you need to be." He pulled out a long sword.

"I hope I never see your stupid-looking face ever again." Hiyori stuck her tongue out in a rude way.

"The feeling's mutual." Shinji answered, bringing his sword down on Hiyori's head, splitting it in half.

The last thing Hiyori thought before she vanished was that with her new name would come a new personality. She wouldn't take shit from anyone, she'd be more assertive, and most of all, she would be way, way more loud than ever before. All to prevent herself from falling victim to another accident.

Her figure vanished from the real world and reappeared in one of Soul Society's many slums, her party outfit replaced with a sky-blue kimono. She touched her face again and was astounded to find all the blood and broken glass was gone, leaving only smooth skin.

With a smirk, she took off sprinting through the town she was in, startling some people.

She had been given another chance to live, and this time, she really would start living her life.

And she would start by becoming a captain, just like that annoying Shinji person.

Nobody would stand in her way.


	2. One Small Sip-Mashiro, 1976

**Author's Note: Yay, putting history in Bleach! I promise not every chapter will be like this though, hehe...**

 **The 1970's was a huge time of change, for both America and Japan. Japan was overrun with polluting factories and industries, and in the mid-to-late-70's, a cholera epidemic happened there, in several major cities. Unfortunately, not too much is known about it, as most cholera outbreaks tend to be left undocumented. All the concerns about air and water pollution made science kits with water and air pollution testers hot items back then for children.**

 **Uh, look up cholera. It's a pretty nasty disease...**

 **Mariko means 'nice village child'.**

 **#########**

"Don't eat so much!" Mariko's tutor snapped at her one sunny March afternoon. "I'm giving you a snack, not a dinner!"

"But I love spiced beef!" Mariko answered with a grin, shoveling more of the spicy dish into her mouth.

It was a game they liked to play. Mariko's tutor, whom she simply called Yamada-sensei, was the total opposite of Mariko, who was free-spirited, loud, and not to mention messy. Every time she came over for lessons, Yamada-sensei would feed her some sort of highly-processed food and tell her not to eat it all to exercise her self-control. Mariko never won those games.

"What are we learning today, Yamada-sensei?" Mariko asked happily, eating more beef. Its juice dripped down her chin and onto her orange scarf. It went along quite nicely with her orange hot-pants, white sweater, and white go-go boots.

"More language practice. Just because you're raised in a low-class family does not mean you have to talk like them!" Yamada-sensei griped, adjusting her glasses.

Mariko pouted. "Awww, I don't have bad language!" She finished off the plate of beef, and her eyes slowly grew wide as she felt the spice backfire on her and set her mouth on fire. "Eeeeek! IT'S SPICY!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and darted outside, making a beeline for her tutor's water faucet. She held her mouth and hurriedly turned the faucet on, and succeeded, making water guzzle out at a fast rate and splatter into the dirt at her feet.

"Stop!" Yamada-sensei yelled at her, running outside after. "Get back inside!"

"No way! My mouth is on fire!" Mariko laughed, placing her head under the water and lapping it up.

"But you can't drink from there!" This Mariko rolled her eyes at and continued drinking, only stopping once her mouth no longer burned. She stood up with a stretch and turned the water off, feeling rejuvenated.

"It's just water, is it really that bad?" She laughed.

"You are a smart girl. Bring that science kit of yours here tomorrow and test my water. Haven't you noticed I never drink from that faucet?" Yamada-sensei went back inside, and Mariko followed her, wondering what was riling her up so much.

Once they were back inside, Mariko pushed aside her empty plate and set a place aside for her language textbook, which was an obvious hand-me-down her school had been using for eons.

"I see you brought your book with you this time. Open it to page 36 and read that passage for me."

"Okay!" Mariko did as she was told and started reading the passage out-loud. It was a paragraph from a famous Japanese novel, and she had to memorize it for the class by Tuesday. And she had to do it in front of them! She was super excited and couldn't wait.

After she finished reading, Yamada-sensei awarded her with a nod, making the black-haired girl beam.

"You posses fine reading abilities for a girl of your age, but your accent is still very thick. Work on that and you'll be fine."

"Far out!" Mariko blurted out, covering her mouth. Yamada-sensei stiffened at her use of dreadful American slang, and Mariko bowed her head in apology.

"Next, let's work on your math."

"Awww, I'm terrible at math!" Mariko pouted again as she threw her old math textbook onto the table, the force making the creaky table wobble.

"That is why we are here. Now, do your assignment and when you come across a question you have, feel free to ask me." With that, Yamada-sensei stood up from her seat and cleared away Mariko's plate and toss it into her sink, then placed a glass of milk in front of Mariko. The black-haired teen barely noticed this action, as she was deeply engrossed in her math homework.

Seeing as how she hadn't asked for help yet, her tutor sat back down at the table and started reading, but to her surprise, Mariko breezed through her homework without so much as a second glance.

"Done!" She said happily, and presented Yamada-sensei with her workbook.

"Don't you think you should go back and double-check that?" Her tutor asked in disbelief, but Mariko shook her head.

"Besides, it's getting late. I gotta go back home!" She gathered up her materials and threw on her backpack, then skipped out of her tutor's house, Yamada-sensei's warning about the drinking water still fresh in her mind.

But surely she was just overreacting? After all, how much harm could drinking a few small sips of water possibly do?

The next morning after breakfast, Mariko eagerly skipped back over to her tutor's, science kit in tow. She decided not to go to school because her stomach was hurting something fierce, but chalked up to her period coming early and decided to spend the day with Yamada-sensei.

"Sensei! I brought my science kit!" She announced, knocking on her door.

It was opened almost instantly by Yamada-sensei, who looked at the seventeen-year-old girl with grave concern plainly on her face.

"Good. You know how to take water samples, don't you? I don't know how advanced those little kits are today, but it's worth a try. Learn something about being reckless." She ushered Mariko out into her backyard, and Mariko eagerly turned the water back on and opened her kit and quickly got to work, taking multiple water samples and doing numerous tests.

"Your orange belt is new." Yamada-sensei commented randomly, startling Mariko and making her nearly drop her sample. "Other than that, you wore this outfit yesterday."

"Oh, I don't like to change clothes very much. Besides, orange and white is such a good color scheme on me, is it not? Don't fret though, they're perfectly clean!" Mariko reassured her with a smile. "Oh, the tests are done!"

She removed the slide and stared at it under the mini-microscope, racking her brains to see if she remembered any pathogens from her science class.

Mariko dropped her sample on the ground in shock, shattering it. "No..." She stammered, readjusting the microscope out of fear she was reading it wrong. "It's gotta be wrong...it has to be wrong...there's no way...!" She looked up at the feeling of Yamada-sensei placing her hand on her shoulder, and her face told Mariko everything she needed to know.

"This is why you shouldn't go through life so recklessly." She said simply.

"No...I can't be sick with cholera, I can't be!" She scooted away from her microscope in terror and hid her face in her knees. To her, cholera was a disease of the low-class, the Europeans and Americans. And it was ancient! Nobody got cholera anymore.

"They say a majority of cholera cases are fatal."

Mariko started to sob.

"What's your favorite TV show?" Yamada-sensei asked Mariko an hour later, having comforted the girl and brought her inside her cottage. "I might check it out."

"Kamen Rider." Mariko answered without hesitation. "I really like the man character, who dresses up like a giant grasshopper! If I die, I want to come back as him."

"You certainly strike me as a fan of such things." Yamada-sensei answered calmly. Mariko groaned and laid on the couch, clutching her stomach.

"It hurts, it hurts!" She whined loudly.

"Your parents will be here soon to pick you up."

"Oh, I won't last that long!" She continued to whine, rolling around on the couch.

"You can, and you will." Yamada-sensei continued her calm sewing.

"Maybe it isn't even cholera. Maybe it's just period cramps, or a regular bug, or-!" Mariko sat up and exclaimed in a hopeful voice, but before she could finish, her cheeks bulged out and she loudly hurled clear water all over herself. She sniffed in a miserable way.

"No, that was the final nail in your coffin. Only a cholera victim has vomit that looks like that."

"Ah...ah..." Mariko panted, still covered in vomit. The thing she found odd was that it had no smell, unless you considered 'water' a smell.

"I know what cholera victims look like."

"Nng..." Mariko could only manage before vomiting again, this time leaning over and puking all over the couch's armrest. "Where's your bathroom?" She nervously tugged on her sweater, upset that it was white.

"The first door on your left in the kitchen." Yamada-sensei looked up briefly from her sewing to point, and Mariko nodded and sped off in that direction.

She locked herself in the bathroom and leaned against the door, clutching her stomach in sheer agony. To her, it felt like she had swallowed a bag of nails and they were being forced through her gut. Perhaps she did. If she had cholera, anything impossible suddenly seemed possible.

"Why, why, why?" She moaned, nearly toppling over from a strong wave of pain in her stomach. Her stomach then dropped, resulting in her making a straight beeline for the toilet and plopping herself down on it, still tightly holding her stomach.

The other strange thing to her was that the ensuing diarrhea was painless and incredibly watery, so it didn't take very long at all for her to empty herself of it. Afterwards, she flushed the toilet and started washing her hands in the sink, catching a strong whiff of-fish? Was that her? She had so much to learn about this disease.

After she washed her hands and dried them on a towel, she dampened a washcloth and started scrubbing down her sweater free of vomit the best she could, but her stomach dropped again and she had to finish the job on the toilet.

This time, she wasn't emptied for several more minutes, and even then it seemed to be starting and stopping. All she could do was scrub her sweater, although that too, was soon covered in a fresh coat of vomit.

Once she was emptied of both hands, she felt incredibly thirsty and staggered back into her tutor's living room, searching for water.

"You can't drink my tap water either, it's just as bad." Yamada-sensei perked up from her corner, looking over the skirt she finished showing.

"Need...water..." Mariko croaked out, grabbing an empty cup from the cupboard and holding it over the sink, filling it to the brim with water and drinking it greedily. It ran down her chin and down into her scarf, which she barely noticed. She filled the cup up again, and again, and again...

She barely registered her head hitting the floor and the screams of her just-arriving parents as the glass she was holding shattered on the floor.

"Just keep her hydrated. It doesn't always work, but she's a hardy girl. She'll get through this." Mariko awoke in her bed to her tutor explaining this to her parents, who simply looked gravely concerned.

She still had a massive stomachache, but her vomiting and diarrhea seemed to stop, so she happily tried jumping out of bed to tell her parents she was fine, but found to her horror she couldn't move her legs. She lifted up her blanket to find she still had her legs, although they were missing her go-go boots. Of course her parents would remove those before she entered the house, conscious or not.

Her legs registered her attempt to move them and tightly compressed, making her flinch. So not only did her stomach hurt, but her legs now too? She dropped the blanket with a cry of pain, making everyone look over at her.

"Oh, you're awake now!" Her mother said happily, running over to her. "Yamada-san said to keep you in bed and keep you hydrated, but she asked we move the TV in here so you won't be bored."

"Look what she brought for you!" Her father exclaimed, pulling out a bundle. Mariko had trouble focusing her eyes on it, but once she did, they instantly lit up.

"Is that...?!" She nearly squealed in delight, reaching out her hands for it. Her sensei had bought her a little figure of the main hero in Kamen Rider!

"It'll go right here, so it can be the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning, and the last thing you see when you go to bed." Her father promised, setting it down gently on her nightstand and making it face her. It was the original rider, the first one she saw, who was dressed like a green grasshopper and was sitting on his motorcycle. Oh, how she wanted to be like him!

"It's a shame the show ended though," She managed.

"Maybe it'll come back on air! A perfect recovery treat for her!" Yamada-sensei smiled, the first genuine smile Mariko had ever seen on her. She quickly bowed and took her leave, leaving Mariko alone with her parents.

"Just yell if you need water or anything, okay?" Her mother instructed.

"If you can't talk, don't worry. Periodically we'll come in here and give you water ourselves." Her father left after that, and her mother left after giving her a kiss. Mariko didn't indicate that she wanted the TV on, so that must've been why it was left off.

She managed to shift her eyes over to the small window by her bed, which presented her with a smoggy view of the city. The sky was usually a dark brown during the day, but to her surprise, the color had shifted in tone, making it a lighter brown. Perhaps some of the factories were shut off?

As she laid there, she also wondered how many of the people in the city had cholera, like her, and what they were doing to cure it. Were they shocked and upset about it, like her, or did they expect it? Or was it simply another consequence of living in the big city?

Mariko laid there some more, her legs hurting too much for her to properly get up and do anything, at least until her stomach dropped again.

Quick as a flash, she climbed out of bed and literally crawled towards the bathroom, not trusting her legs to work well enough to permit her access. As she was crawling, though, she felt her cheeks bulge, and she loudly vomited onto the hardwood floor, collapsing.

"Mama! Mama!" She cried, vomiting again. "Papa! Papa!"

They soon came running, finding the image of their daughter lying on the floor crying, halfway to the bathroom.

"What happened here?" Her father asked. "And is that fish I smell?"

"I'm okay, I'm okay..." She struggled, her dry tongue slipping on the words.

"What is happening to our daughter?" Her mother asked in horror, and Mariko passed out again, although whether it was from her thirst, illness, pain, or all combined, she didn't know.

She just hoped it all ended soon, so she could go back to school and to her tutor Yamada-sensei and she'd be more careful about what she put into her mouth and she'd donate to cholera disease research around the world and she'd petition for Kamen Rider to be put back on the air...

A bucket was placed next to her bed, and her clothes were swiftly changed and she was put into her light white pj's, but she barely registered the function. Her eyes were open, she could tell that they were, but she couldn't _see_ anything. She tensed up slightly when she felt someone handling her tangled locks of shiny black hair, and flinched when she felt all that weight get cut away.

"It'll be better for her if she has short hair," Her father explained. "That way she won't get her vomit tangled in it."

"You'll be so stylish with your bob now!" Her mother reassured her, and Mariko smiled inwardly. Yes, a bob would be a nice change of pace. Every Japanese girl had her hair bobbed nowadays, mimicking a popular style from America. Some even curled and teased their hair. Maybe she could do that too!

Her stomach flipped, and all she could do was lean over and vomit, hearing the watery mess hit the bottom of the metal bucket. She laid back down, and her mother brushed her hair gently.

"It's okay, Mariko. Just drink." Her father held a straw to her mouth, but she had no energy left to even suck from it.

Her mother finished brushing her hair and pinned it out of her face with two giant barrettes."There, you look so pretty now!"

She sure didn't feel pretty. If she could move, she'd be squirming and writhing in agony from the combined pain of both her legs and abdomen together. All she could really do was tense her body up, and even then...

"Come on, just take a sip. If you don't drink, you'll never get better!" Her father coaxed, a bit more sternly this time. Mariko responded to him by rolling over and vomiting on herself.

"Oh..." Her mother sighed and left the room.

"Drink it. You want to recover, don't you?" Her fathered thrust the straw back into her mouth, and to humor him, she slowly wrapped her lips around the opening and sucked, and only when he tipped the cup slightly did she finally taste liquid flowing into her mouth.

What _was_ this stuff?! It was delicious! It was water, she knew that, but it had sugar and salt mixed in! It was tasty! If she had more energy, she'd certainly gulp it dry!

But she had no energy left, and just taking a couple sips took everything out of her, so she stopped sipping. Her father nudged the straw further into her mouth, but she looked at him with her hazel-brown, sunken-in eyes, and with a sigh, he took the cup away.

"Suit yourself." He said simply yet sadly, and left Mariko alone again.

She wondered what her class was doing in school today. They were working on language, she remembered now. They had to memorize a famous poem by a certain poet...what was his name...she struggled to recollect her memories. She also found it harder and harder to think in a positive way like she was so prone to, and that was what truly upset her.

Mariko worried that if she didn't smile during her illness, she'd die, and dying from cholera was the last thing she wanted. Who died of cholera in 1976?! Her stomach dropped again, and she mustered up a tiny bit of energy to jump out of bed and empty herself into her bucket.

Afterwards, she climbed back into bed and sighed. That fish smell was going to make her vomit again, she just knew it. Not having anything else to do, she glanced over at her Kamen Rider action figure, happy to at least have that by her side. If she died, would they burn it along with her remains? Or, since she died of an illness, would they just bury her in the ground? Could she be buried with the figure?

She fell asleep with all those thoughts knocking around in her head...

######

Mariko sped faster and faster down the road. She was riding on a motorcycle, and she was letting her archenemy escape! Well, they wouldn't be escaping for long. She leaned forward in her seat slightly to build up more speed, then stomped on the gas. Yes, there was her archenemy, right there!

He turned to gaze at her as she forced her motorcycle to a halt and jumped off, clad as usual in her grasshopper mask and attire. This guy, didn't anyone give him the memo? He wasn't some kind of animal at all, he looked like a big hulky boxer in a hockey mask. Well, that wouldn't matter once she defeated him.

With a cry, she threw up her right leg and brought it down square on his head, knocking him down. Not wanting him to gain the upper-hand, she swung her leg back and kicked him right back in the stomach, then smirked.

"You think you can beat me? Scum like you is too easy for the likes of me!" She did a victory pose. Her mouth was killing her. After all that fighting, she needed a drink of water. She started to head over to her motorcycle, when something heavy grabbed her arm tightly, making her blood run cold.

"Where do you think you're going, bitch? I'm not finished with you yet!" He growled out, throwing Mariko to the ground. The impact hit her stomach the worst and caused her to vomit up blood...no...water...? Why was she puking up water? No matter. She readjusted her mask and stood back up, striking a fighting pose.

"You are no match for Grasshopper Lady!" She cheered, kicking his stomach in several rapid kicks in succession. However, instead of going down, he stood there calmly, and she fell down instead. "W...what?!"

"Bitch, you're dying. You still think you're an equal match for me?" He challenged, and she slowly stood back up.

"I'm...not...dying...!" She barely managed, coughing.

"Look at you. Yes you are."

"Liar!" She charged at him and threw a punch, cracking part of his mask. "Mariko won't die from cholera! She's much too hardy for that!" She insisted, punching more holes into his mask. Was that really her voice, or someone else's?

Why did it matter? Soon she had managed to knock her foe unconscious, and she got off him with a smirk. "Next time, think twice before you say Mariko is dying!" She flipped her black bob of hair, coated in barrettes, and got back onto her motorcycle and sped off, not thinking about her foe anymore.

One thing was certain for her: she wouldn't die from cholera. She could die in any other way at any other time, but it was not from that and it was not today.

#######

"Mariko? Mariko!" Her mother yelled anxiously, shaking to wake her up. "Why can't she hear me?" She looked despertly at the doctor.

"How well-hydrated was she?" He asked in a stern voice.

"I gave her several cups of water for the past day, but she only had the strength to sip a few drops." Her fathered explained, running a hand through his hair.

"What kind of water was it?"

"The kind her tutor, Yamada Aiko-san, told us to give her. Regular water with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt mixed in."

"Oh, her? You mean that woman with the long black braid in her hair and the glasses, always walking around like she disapproves of you?" The doctor asked in a curious tone, and her mother nodded.

"That's the one. Said her husband fell ill with cholera shortly before he moved to the States, so she has experience with it." She answered.

"Well, my best guess here is that she simply didn't get enough water to balance out her electrolytes, and she became too dehydrated for her body systems to properly function."

Her parents looked over at Mariko, who was sleeping soundly in her bed. Vomit covered her chest and mouth, and a strong fishy odor emitted from her. Yet, despite that, she somehow looked peaceful, if it wasn't for her wrinkly, bluish skin and sunken-in eyes.

"You don't mean to say...?" Her mother asked nervously, and the doctor nodded.

"I'm sorry to say it, and I truly am. I haven't seen a cholera case like this since the war, and I'm sad that she couldn't fight it off." He left the room to give them some privacy, and her father picked up her action figure.

"Let's at least bury her with this. She is sick, so they won't cremate her-but let's at least give her some sort of happiness anyway." He explained, placing it beside her head on her pillow.

"She was only seventeen, honey!" Her mother sobbed.

"Who says life is fair?" He held her.

However, Mariko was sitting on her bed in utter confusion. Dead? She wasn't dead! She was right there! A long chain bound her to her bed, but she could still reach out and hug them, if she stretched.

"Mama, Papa! I'm still alive! See? I'm healthy!" She smiled weakly. "Can't you see me?" She reached out her arms to touch her mother's shoulder, to get her attention, let her know she wasn't dead-but it went right through her.

Mariko stared at her hands in confusion. _She_ could feel them, know they were there, so why couldn't her parents?

"Mama? Papa?" She asked again, but they took no notice that they heard her. "Am I really...dead?" She looked at her reflection in the window, finding herself looking exactly like her body did, but when she tried looking in her mirror, she had no reflection. So...was she dead?

Mariko leaned back against her wall and sighed. What was she going to do now? Nobody ever talked about this part of their lives. Was she supposed to sit and wait for something to happen? She glanced back over at her parents.

"Don't worry, guys. When I go to where-ever I'm going, I'm going to become super powerful! I'll make you proud. I'll come back as a queen or something! So don't be sad anymore. Smile for me, okay? Then, I'll smile every day in the afterlife to remind myself to be more positive. If I'm happy, bad things won't affect me as much! So smile, 'kay?" She ended her little speech with a big smile of her own, and even though nobody could see it, it still made her just the tiniest bit happier.

"And to die on April 1st, too..." Her mother sighed. Mariko jumped off her bed, but was limited by her chain so had to remain at the foot.

"Even better! I'll use this to improve the lives of the people around me, whether dead or alive!" She smiled more.

As she stood there, a bright light suddenly appeared beside her, and a serious-looking woman stepped out, wearing a long black kimono.

"Ready to go?" She asked sternly.

"Go where?" Mariko asked eagerly.

"To the Soul Society. You're dead now, yeah?"

"Yeah! I'm excited to go! Can I be whatever you are? A spirit guide?"

"Maybe, if you meet all the requirements. It's very hard though, we barely have enough Soul Reapers as it is." She pulled out a katana with a pink hilt.

"I'm sure they're not that bad!" Mariko said cheerfully, and soon the sword came down on her head, splitting it. "I'll become a Soul Reaper thingy too!"

##########

The newly-banded together Vizards were given giant boxes of their stuff that Yoruichi found when they asked her to visit their old houses, from so long ago.

"It was hard to find everyone. If you died a few years ago, it was easier, but if not...well, I still tried my best anyway!" She smiled a bit. "Hopefully this'll boast your morale!"

They eagerly tore open the boxes and looked through the things inside, wondering what they'd find. They didn't remember very much about their human lives, so what they considered special to themselves was a total surprise.

"Hey, here's my old tracksuit! I used to wear this all the time!" Hiyori said, pulling out a bright red jacket with a white stripe. "Hm. It still has my living last name on it...I need to change that."

Nobody was as excited as Mashiro though, who squealed when she opened her own box. "I forgot all about this!" She pulled it out and showed it off to everyone. It was her old Kamen Rider figure. "This thing encouraged me to get through my illness. I so wanted to be like this guy when I was alive!" She squealed.

"I'd say you're halfway there," Risa said simply, referring to the form Mashiro took when she was training.

"I know! When I found out I could turn into a grasshopper, I was so happy, I nearly lived! That's why I can control it so well-it's my dream!" She held the figure to her chest.

"Who knew dying could give us a chance to redeem our lives?" Risa adjusted her glasses.

Mashiro separated herself from the other Vizards, wanting to spend some time alone with her old action figure. She didn't have a shelf or anything to display it on, but that didn't matter. With a big grin, she laid it beside her pillow, where it could be the last thing she saw when she went to bed and the first thing she saw when she woke up.

Hey, where had she heard that before...? She shook her head and smiled, assuming Kensei said it to one of his subordinates at some point, and skipped off to empty out the rest of her box.


End file.
